Mist in the Ripples
by Nickie Moon
Summary: "The mist and dark grow strong... Beware of those who don't belong..." Many cats would love to forget their pasts, but it seems that they can no longer avoid what they've done and experienced. This story is also posted on Wattpad under the username Nightdreaming. This is also me. Wattpad story is updated quicker than on here.
1. Allegiances

**_Rippleclan_**

 **Leader:** Ripplestar: black and white tuxedo she-cat with blue eyes

 _Apprentice: Speckledpaw (skinny speckled she-cat with green eyes)_

 **Deputy:** Barkstripe: red-brown tabby tom with green eyes

 _Apprentice: Eclipsepaw (thick-furred calico she-cat with light blue eyes)_

 **Medicine Cat:** Moonbeam: short-tailed black she-cat with a dark gray stripe along her back, orange eyes, and a scar on her face

 _Apprentice: Shadepaw (longhaired brown tabby tom with one green eye and one blue eye)_

 **Warriors:** Hiddenshadow: thick-furred jet-black tom with dark blue eyes and barely noticeable dark gray eartips

 _Apprentice: Amberpaw (longhaired red-brown tabby tom with yellow eyes)_

Loosetail: gray tabby tom with blue eyes

 _Apprentice: Dreampaw (gray tabby she-cat with green eyes)_

Treefur: lean light brown she-cat with dark brown colorpoint markings and light green eyes

Brownfur: lean light brown tom with dark brown colorpoint markings and light green eyes

 _Apprentice: Dawnpaw (shorthaired, short-legged white she-cat with cream spots, orange eyes, and a short tail)_

Mistcloud: silver tabby she-cat with yellow eyes

 _Apprentice: Whisperpaw (light calico she-cat with amber eyes)_

 **Apprentices:** Dreampaw: gray tabby she-cat with green eyes

Amberpaw: longhaired red-brown tabby tom with yellow eyes

Shadepaw: longhaired brown tabby tom with one green eye and one blue eye

Dawnpaw: shorthaired, short-legged white she-cat with cream spots, orange eyes, and a short tail

Whisperpaw: light calico she-cat with amber eyes

Eclipsepaw: thick-furred calico she-cat with light blue eyes

Speckledpaw: skinny speckled she-cat with green eyes

 **Elders:** Sunstripe: plump, orange tabby tom with a white belly and amber eyes

Brightpelt: cream-colored she-cat with orange eyes, white eartips, a scar on her leg, and a notch in her ear

 ** _Cats Outside the Clans_**

Snowkit: white tom with bright blue eyes and scars on his back


	2. Prologue

A figure drifted through the fog, swirling fur blending into the landscape as crystalline eyes struggled to see beyond a little gray nose. The land was murky, wet, dark, cold, and unexplored. All alone, the poor feline trudged, paws sinking in something that felt like a mixture of moss and mud.

"Silverstream… Silverstream…" a voice called out to the feline, wispy, struggling to say more.

Silverstream had no clue what she was doing, following something she couldn't even see, feel, or smell. It had all started when Spottedleaf, - May she shine the sun's rays upon us – had declared that she, Silverstream, of all cats, had been chosen by the Skies above Starclan – their name spoken with absolute authorization – to start and monitor a new clan.

That's right. An entirely new clan in an entirely new place. Somehow, the Skies Above Starclan had managed to reach another piece of land with cats they deemed willing to form a clan.

The Starclan cats had tried to reason with the Skies Above, to argue that the four clans could never be remade or copied, that the four clans of Riverclan, Shadowclan, Thunderclan, and Windclan would uphold the Warrior Code forever, and that they didn't need any more clans.

But at that point Windflight – May he shine the sun's rays upon us – had joined his voice in with Spottedleaf's, asserting that there was no way the decision would be changed. From each corner of Starclan, dead cats protested, yowling mutiny and rage, to which the Skies Above did not reply.

At this point, Silverstream, who'd been having a peaceful nap in a sun-drenched clearing, was briskly awoken and told that she'd been chosen to create the first clan.

And so, there she was, miserably dragging her limbs through the western-most area of Starclan. She wondered if it was the Place of no Stars at first, but Spottedleaf, following her movements from above, had assured her it was not.

It had been two nights since Spottedleaf told her that she was not allowed to stop walking or she'd sink into the ground. Silverstream had walked an entire 48 hours since then, yet she wasn't hungry or thirsty, only tired. The speckled she-cat following Silverstream's movements had many powers to prevent hunger and thirst.

But the fog was thinning, and smells were returning, giving Silverstream new life. As if acting upon their own impulses, her legs skipped forth, putting on a burst of speed in the direction of a spot of sunlight.

"Silverstream… Good luck…"

Out of nowhere, a rock slammed into Silverstream's foot. With a strangled yowl of pain, she tumbled into some lush greenery.

All around her were ferns, bushes, and trees. The trees seemed different from the ones she was used to seeing, thinner and shorter, many leaning so much that their dried up roots were above ground. Lots of objects littered the ground, most being twoleg things that were brown and broken with age.

It seemed like a calm area, uninterrupted by the figures of cats milling about against the growth like what she was used to seeing. Birds chirped contentedly as prey smells wafted into Silverstream's nostrils, causing an unexpected smile to creep onto her face.

So, where was this cat that would be sent her way? Where was the hardened alley cat from the cities that the Skies Above had chosen to be the first of this new clan to bear the suffix "star"?

The next smell that hit her nostrils quickly erased the grin of excitement that had grown onto Silverstream's muzzle. It was the stench of cat grooming shampoo; an overly used cat bed made of 50% human fluff, 50% cat fur; and tangible pride another cat may feel after winning the pedigree prize.

"A kittypet!?" Silverstream yowled into the treetops. "Not a battle-experienced alley cat!?"

The answer from the Skies Above that Silverstream had hoped to receive was inexistent. The only sound that could be heard after her outburst was a rustling in tall grasses beside her, most likely from the wind.

Wait, what wind?

Silverstream jumped into nearby cover, a tuft of ferns, as she instinctively knew that the animal in the bush could be dangerous. Of course, there was no danger in dreams unless it was created, so she had to shake her head at her own ridiculousness.

There had to be a reason why a kittypet was chosen to lead the first clan. There had to be a reason why Starclan would choose a cat that had hardly ever seen the outside world, to be the first to learn the Warrior Code.

A grayish nose popped out of the grasses, and Silverstream, despite her reluctance, decided to create a mouse for the nose to scent. The mouse stood on a gravel path, in the open, nibbling at a nut.

Mice didn't usually eat nuts, nor did they sit out in the open to wait for a predator, but Silverstream was only an amateur dream-maker to say the least. Would this pampered kittypet even notice the difference? Silverstream prayed to the Skies Above for luck as she watched from the other side of the path.

The grasses parted, revealing a plump black and white she-cat. She was quite the eye candy, being sleek with the most solid blue eyes Silverstream had ever seen in her lifetime. The silvery feline admired this cat's pelt; black with a white belly and chest, akin to the garments twolegs wore on special occasions. This cat couldn't possibly feel as if she'd be better off in the wild.

Could she?

Silverstream watched as the cat approached the mouse, but to her dismay, she thought nothing of the creature and ignored it. The mouse hopped away upon Silverstream's command, literally disappearing in some tall grasses.

The taste of blood was Silverstream's doorway to letting her have a solid form in the kittypet's first dream. Only if the tuxedo she-cat tasted blood could she hear the words of the Starclan warrior. So, Silverstream created the juiciest-looking, fattest, strongest-smelling rabbit she could create in hopes of enticing the house cat.

Yet again, the she-cat refused the offering and sauntered down the gravel path.

"Danger… Battle…" a voice from the Skies Above murmured to Silverstream's ears only.

Silverstream knew what this meant: the tuxedo cat would not be tempted by food, but rather, by danger. The bright blue-eyed female followed the kittypet, reluctant to put her in a position of danger, as both she and the sleek house cat could get killed. It wasn't Silverstream's forte to create rivers of blood and piles of bones, anyhow.

But, perhaps she didn't need a blood river. Perhaps all she needed to do was start a fight.

Silverstream then wove two figures: a large cat, and a kit, with no defined traits. Both were dim, without pelt or eye colors, but the kittypet's orbs found themselves locked onto the pair, watching as the larger cat crept on the unsuspecting kit.

It was such a tiny action. The large cat had lifted his paw and unsheathed his claws.

But to the kittypet, this meant that the kit would be hurt, and her instant impulse was to dash upon the menacing presence.

Her fighting was slow, sloppy, rogue-like, but dream creations would not be difficult to defeat. Despite the awkwardness of her blows, there was some sort of grace to this kittypet, in the sense that she knew exactly what she was doing. The large cat yowled, getting bowled over by the feline. The she-cat was overpowering it, her blows landing at random but with desired effect.

Finally, the kittypet decided to bite down onto her enemy, letting blood drop onto her tastebuds. Silverstream managed to completely materialize as soon as the blood met the house cat's tongue, so she padded calmly in front of the house cat, splitting the images of the kit and its attacker.

"Huh? Who are you? Are you going to attack this kit-" the other cat began, gesturing towards a kit that she finally noticed was no longer there.

"No. I am Silverstream of Starclan, here to offer you a chance to protect so many more than this one kit," Silverstream responded.

"Uh… Nice to meet you… Silverstream… I'm Cuddles…"

There was no time for unsure, awkward introductions! The first dream always gave so very little time, this Silverstream knew.

"You were chosen to create a clan, Cuddles." Silverstream cringed. A name change was definitely needed. "You were chosen, among many, to bring the words of the Warrior Code to the cats here."

"I was… What? Me? What's a clan? What's a warrior code?"

Silverstream was fading from Cuddles' view. She had to finish soon, and see her in another dream.

"We will see each other again," she said, as she was nearly completely faded. "Farewell, Cuddles…"

The dream disappeared before Cuddles' eyes, replaced by the sight of her fluffy pink cat bed inside her twoleg home.

 _I was chosen to do what?_


	3. Chapter 1 - Until They Are Apprenticed

_Soft wind blew over a sparkling landscape, making the moorland look like a rippling ocean of grasses and flowers. Plump rabbits lazily grazed at the stalks, though they were not actually eating anything. Their teeth passed right through the plants, a young tuxedo she-cat noticed as she walked by, following a silver tabby that meant to lead her someplace._

 _Perhaps the fact that the tuxedo was in a dream would explain the ghostly grass._

 _"_ _Silverstream, where are we going? Why aren't we in the woods any more?" the black and white cat by the name of Ripplestar asked._

 _"_ _We can stop right here, actually," Silverstream responded. "I like the moors for dreams."_

 _Silverstream stopped, turned to face Ripplestar, and sat down. She nodded her head to allow her student to sit, which the feline promptly did. Sitting was strange, as it felt to the silver tabby that the moor grasses still wanted to move with the wind despite having hindquarters squashing them._

 _"_ _We are learning the Warrior Code, Ripplestar, as you know," Silverstream began. "It will be your job to enforce these rules, making sure everyone is following them, to ensure a thriving clan."_

 _"_ _Yeah yeah, you already taught me some. I remember this," Ripplestar said a bit snarkily._

 _"_ _Now, the next rule of the code I want you to remember is this:" Silverstream began, ignoring Ripplestar's tone,_ "A kit must be at least six moons old to become an apprentice."

 _Ripplestar ran a paw over her ear. "Okay. That makes sense to me, so they don't have to start that training stuff you mentioned before too early, right? They can start at six months after chilling out awhile, so they get six months to train!"_

 _"_ _Er… It's more so that they can be kits until they're strong enough to defend themselves…"_

 _"_ _Huh? What do you mean by that?"_

 _"_ _Well, kits have to stay in camp so the new generation is protected at all costs."_

 _"_ _What? Stay in camp? I understand not making kits hunt or fight, but… For six entire months, confined to a little camp?_

 _"_ _Yeah. They're protected that way."_

 _"_ _But that's BORING."_

 _Silverstream paused, confused about how to continue. Boring? To stay in camp? To be protected by the members of the clan?_

 _"_ _Well… They… It's safe in camp!" Silverstream argued._

 _Ripplestar stood up before Silverstream. For whatever reason, Silverstream realized that this other cat was very intent on questioning the Warrior Code. What was going on? What was wrong with keeping kits in camp, where they'd be protected?_

 _"_ _So, what? We don't let the new generation have experiences? My twoleg's kits can go outside all the time as long as they have an escort! Do kits not matter until they grow up and serve a purpose? Is that it?"_

 _The sarcasm and snarkyness was almost overwhelming. Ripplestar was angry, passionately angry, about something Thunderclan, Riverclan, Windclan, and Shadowclan had been following for generations upon generations._

 _Silverstream should have been offended. She should have defended the code. She should have said something._

 _But this cat had a point._

Sunlight entered the den in inconsistent drabbles, irritating a small gray kitten's closed eyelids. They begged to be opened up, but the little creature did not want to give in yet again. Last time she'd done that, she was nearly blinded by the sharp image that light created in front of her opened eyes.

She could hear already, anyway, and that should be enough. Most of what she heard was two voices telling her she needed to open her eyes, though. Of course, the voices talked about other things, but it was so annoying how they wanted to pull her out of the nice, comfortable darkness she was in.

Or, maybe they just wanted to play with her.

She was already a bit older than a month, so perhaps she was ready enough to get out of the darkness. Maybe it'd be more fun!

The little kit took in a big gulp of air, smelling everything around her to make sure nothing would surprise her out of nowhere, and fluttered her eyelids open.

She thought she had strategically planned well enough so that she'd experience the least amount of surprise, but a loud squeal resounded next to her as soon as her light blue kitten eyes revealed themselves. Dreamkit responded by starting and rushing to the back of the den, watching another cat look at her with its jaws agape.

"Our sister's eyes are opened! They're opened! Mom! Mom! Amberkit! Amberkit!" a brown tabby yowled, bounding out a space between tangles of tree roots that seemed to hold the ceiling above Dreamkit.

All around, there was nothing but dirt and moss beds. It was dull, boring almost, but somehow the place felt secure, as if nothing bad would happen there. Dreamkit calmed down from her initial surprise and took a big whiff of the air, smelling things like warmth and milk.

She'd heard those voices she knew so well call this place the _nursery._

"Dreamkit! Hi!"

She probably should have been surprised by this new voice, but somehow it seemed less intruding than the brown tabby's yowling. Dreamkit was busily sniffing from the furthest corner of the nursery, though, so she decided that whoever it was could wait until she was done.

"Dreamkit?"

It persisted. She sighed inwardly and decided she could probably finish later, since she wasn't finding anything different in the air, anyhow.

"Hi," she said, looking straight ahead so that her face could be level with this new cat.

"Look, we all have blue eyes!" the brown tabby from before exclaimed as he hopped in, settling himself next to the newcomer.

He was right. He, the brown tabby who'd surprised her, had light blue eyes, just as the cat on the right, a red-brown tabby, had eyes of the same shade. Dreamkit could not see her own eyes, but having somebody let her know they were blue should be proof enough that they were.

"Hi. Who are you two?" Dreamkit asked simply, wishing they'd get around to that.

"What do you mean by 'who are you two?'" the red-brown tabby asked, confused.

"Um… I mean, who are you two?" Dreamkit repeated, not catching on to the confusion in this cat's body language.

"Well, I'm your brother Amberkit!"

 _Brother._

"Amberkit! You're Amberkit," Dreamkit was hit by recognition, but she didn't show it well as she calmly ran her paw over an ear. "Is that Shadekit?" she gestured towards the brown tabby.

It wasn't her fault she couldn't yet associate their looks to the voices she'd heard when she was young. When Shadekit had yowled, she didn't recognize his voice as one of the two voices she'd been around for her whole life.

Memories of all that time flashed through her mind, as it did for many kits fully opening their eyes for the first time, and she instantly remembered who these cats were, and what they meant to her. She didn't need Amberkit to answer the question of who Shadekit was, as she managed to come to her own conclusion.

"We are all… The kits of Mistcloud…" she murmured. "We are the kits of Mistcloud! Siblings!"

As if summoned by mere mention of her name, Mistcloud walked into the nursery. Her eyes widened upon sight of Dreamkit, and she instantly rushed over to lick the little kit.

Dreamkit bathed in the scent of her mother, focusing on the little traces of milk she smelt among some strange things she could not recognize. Mistcloud's misty silver chest fur brushed Dreamkit's whiskers, but not before Dreamkit had a good look at her mother's lovely yellow eyes.

"Mama."

"Yes, Dreamkit. I'm your mama," Mistcloud replied after a lick.

"Mama, you're pretty."

Another lick.

"I kn- I mean, thanks, hun."

"I like y-"

"Dreamkit, honey, um," Mistcloud interrupted her. "I'm sure seeing must be quite the change," Mistcloud explained between licks. "But would you be alright with heading out of the nursery to explore camp?"

 _There was more to see than the nursery? Camp?_

"Yes mama! I really would like to see the camp!"

Much to Dreamkit's disappointment, Mistcloud pulled away. Luckily, this resulted in the kit having a nice, clean head, slicked back between her ears in just the right way.

"Amberkit, Shadekit, could you show her around camp?" Mistcloud asked her brothers. "I have to go see Ripplestar about my leg, remember? I told you two the big word, can you remember it?"

Dreamkit listened intently. What was wrong with her mother's leg?

"Um… Asibitus! Alius? Artis!" Amberkit guessed.

"Arthetis!" Shadekit said confidently.

"Well, I do suppose it's an odd word," Mistcloud made a noise like a chuckle. "Arthritis, you two."

"Arthritis!" Shadekit squeaked. "I knew that!"

"Whatever," Amberkit sighed. "Warriors don't need to know nerdy medicine cat words!"

"Hey!" Shadekit protested. "I want to be a medicine cat, and I'm not a nerd!"

Mistcloud had turned to exit from the space between roots of the ceiling. She stopped after Shadekit's squeak, turning around with a sparkle in her yellow eyes.

"Neither of you are even apprentices yet! Geez, let yourselves be kits before you think about all that!" she said, smiling as she hopped up a staircase of roots and exited the den.

"Alright!" Amberkit said enthusiastically, not really acknowledging his mother's words properly. "Dreamkit! We should go see camp!"

Amberkit spun around to face the den exit and flicked his tail in an odd motion, confusing Dreamkit as she turned to Shadekit for help.

"Come on, Dreamkit. Follow us," Shadekit explained, turning around to follow his brother.

They didn't wait to make sure Dreamkit knew how to get out, so she had to stand in thought for a few moments before leaping up to the first of three roots. This was easy, so she had no trouble hopping up and outside of the nursery's entrance on two more, which acted as a staircase to the den entrance, which was a little hole at the base of a tree.

The hard part was embracing the disappointment of what she saw.

Dreamkit had expected a grand, sunlit clearing, full of sparkling grasses sprinkled by early morning dew and ladybirds.

Instead, her newly opened eyes were met with a slope of brittle, dry earth interrupted only by a few trees with leafy tops that seemed too big for the trunks. Dreamkit figured she shouldn't complain, though, as they acted as good cover. There was a nice-looking, lush area of low-growing plants at the bottom of the hill, and higher up, a few more trees grappled in desperation for a purchase on the slope. There were things past the trees, but Dreamkit was having a hard time seeing what was there, especially with the limited sunlight she had considering it was late.

"Come on, sis!" Shadekit called from below.

He and Amberkit were bounding down the hill towards the rhubarb and bushes growing thickly at the bottom, but Dreamkit didn't feel like following down there. Instead, she leapt off the roots just outside the nursery entrance that acted as a platform, and began climbing up the slope.

Up top, strange twoleg objects jutted from the side of the steep hill. There was a teeter-totter of wood connecting two wooden twoleg paths, these paths made up of mostly decaying wood struggling to stay firmly in place. Circles went around tree trunks, and in some places, thin planks were the only things left to walk on.

Dreamkit couldn't help herself, and hopped onto the path. Nose close to the ground; she went along the planks to find that there were lingering twoleg scents, no older than a day or two old. What kind of twoleg would try to walk on the obviously dangerous paths? She went up the teeter-totter contraption, finding that the scents even followed there.

She had forgotten that she weighed enough to sway the wooden teeter-totter, and as she padded up the angled planks, she could not stifle a yelp of surprise as it began to tip downwards.

Almost instantly after it began to tip, the teeter-totter flung itself back up as a loud bang reached Dreamkit's ears. She squealed and dug her claws in, crouching to prevent herself from tumbling back.

"Hey, little kiddies shouldn't be explorin' these paths alone!" a voice resounded behind her.

She stretched her neck to look back, and saw an orange tabby tom holding the wooden plank down with his front paws so it wouldn't tip forward. Dreamkit began shuffling backwards, careful, doing her best not to slip.

Another cat hopped up beside the orange tabby, this one a cream-colored she-cat.

"I see ya caught her in time," the she-cat said as Dreamkit finally got back to the safety of the wooden path.

"Hi," Dreamkit said to the two, turning to face them.

"Aw, you'd be one of them three new kits! Hello, dear, I'm Brightpelt!" the cream, orange-eyed cat said, purr rising in her throat.

"And I'm Sunstripe," the orange tabby with amber eyes continued. "Should I say, 'welcome to this here clan' or somethin'?"

Dreamkit looked from Suntripe to Brightpelt, confused by their slightly different manner of talking.

"Oh, she makes that face because we be here, talkin' like southerners no matter how long we've been up north!" Brightpelt said with a slight wail.

"I like how you… Talk," Dreamkit tried to reassure the she-cat. "I'm Dreamkit."

She had absolutely no clue what "southerner" meant, but she didn't want to ask and look like she didn't know anything.

"You wouldn't know what 'southerner' means, would ya?" Sunstripe said, as if reading her mind. "See, we two come from Texas, USA!"

"Ooh, honey, remember when we met?" Brightpelt broke in. "Your twolegs were so mad about you breakin' that precious ol' vase! Kicked you right out!"

Dreamkit perked her ears; quite interested in the story these two had begun telling.

"So kind to me in that barn, you were!" he began, and then abruptly changed his tone. "Ha, er, _cuddlin'_ with me when I was scared, I mean."

Did they even remember that she was still standing there?

"Dreamkit!" Brightpelt exclaimed, answering her question. "My goodness, when we got back to the house, them twolegs completely forgot about Sunstripe when that little girl was yellin' about wantin' a pony!"

"And then," Brightpelt continued. "I just waltzed right in there like nothin' ever happened."

"A shame that little girl moved up north, where there's no space for any horses or ponies in the city."

"Or," Brightpelt continued with her tone growing saddened, "two cats, apparently."

"Well, to be fair," Sunstripe argued, looking back towards Dreamkit. "It was her mate that kicked us out to the curb."

Dreamkit nodded, unsure of what exactly these cats were talking about. Somehow, she could infer that the pair had been kittypets living someplace else, then they met in a barn, then the twoleg moved to the city where they were thrown into the streets by their twoleg's mate.

"Well…" Dreamkit began, unsure of how she should respond. "You got kicked to the curb, and then, you came here. It is nice here, right?"

"You're right, Dreamkit," Brightpelt responded. "We do like Rippleclan."

 _Rippleclan._

She had heard that before. It seemed that Rippleclan was her home, her mother's home, her brothers' home, and the home of many other cats she had yet to meet.

"Dreamkit!"

She had opened her mouth to speak again, but shut it as she heard her name. Dreamkit looked about until her eyes landed upon the figure of her brother Amberkit.

"What," Dreamkit said, leaning out from the edge of the path to see her brother better.

"We had no idea where you were!" Amberkit exclaimed. "Come down from there, we want to show you something!"

Dreamkit looked apologetically at Brightpelt and Sunstripe.

"Um, bye! Thanks for the story!" she smiled, then hopped down the jutting path to the hill below, where she landed messily in her attempt not to fall.

"Goodbye, Dreamkit!" Brightpelt said to her as she and Amberkit half-slid, half-walked down the hill of dirt towards the next section of camp.

Dreamkit shook, trying to remove all the dirt that had collected in her pelt after her jump. Unfortunately, this act only resulted in her tumbling forward until she reached the undergrowth of bushes and rhubarb she'd spotted earlier.

As wide rhubarb leaves shrouded most of the sunlight, Dreamkit looked up. Amberkit had hopped down to join her, and had led her to her brother Shadekit. The two exchanged some words that she ignored, and they did that odd tail flick again, which Dreamkit remembered was used to tell her to follow them, which she did despite wanting to go a different way, where there were more cat scents.

Her tail wound around wide, rough stems, these gradually becoming thinner and smoother. Soon, the setting sun flickered in bands between long, green grasses towering high overhead. Sometimes, Dreamkit would be surprised by a weird shadow that passed over much quickly. The world was quite fascinating, but Dreamkit's favorite thing must have been fluffy bits gently floating down from gigantic dandelions.

"Hey, Amberkit! Shadekit! Look!" she exclaimed, pointing to a considerably large fluff.

But when she looked to see why they hadn't answered her, she realized her brothers were no longer there.


End file.
